


Don't Mess with the Horsemen

by Ladykey17



Series: Obey Me! Next Generation [4]
Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Blood and Violence, Bullying, Food, Four Horsemen, Multi, Next Generation, Post RAD Exchange Program
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25803352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladykey17/pseuds/Ladykey17
Summary: After relentless bullying, the children of the horsemen decide to take matters into their own hands.This piece features OCs that belong to AngelusLoreleiAges:Violet: 18Dante: 17CJ and Alistar: 16Dahlia: 16Freddy: 16Hawkin: 16
Series: Obey Me! Next Generation [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1846696
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Don't Mess with the Horsemen

“I’m sorry you didn’t have another good day,” Alicia said as she gently reached out and took her daughter’s phone. “But that doesn’t mean we get to break table rules. No phones at the table. You know that.”

CJ looked at the phone in her mother’s hands and turned her attention to the food in front of her. She felt a pair of eyes on her and she glanced down the table. Lucifer watched her, almost warning her to behave herself. She hated these dinners. It was so much easier when it was just her mom, dad, brother, and his dad. It was over quickly, and she could go back to her room. 

She could barely make out the conversation going on around her. The muffled sounds of her cousins wrapped around her, not making much sense. The memories of the past few weeks played through her head. 

_ “Stop twirling your pencil, Clarissa. It’s distracting.”  _ The pencil was snapped in half and tossed back on her desk. She didn’t finish her test. 

_ “Clarissa! If you have so much to say to your classmate, surely you can say it in front of the class.”  _ She was yanked from her desk and forced to the front of the classroom, where she found herself at loss for words. Everyone laughed. 

_ “Looks like you have enough energy to burn, why don’t you run around RAD a couple of times?”  _ She was kicked out of the lunchroom and sent to run laps around the school, without finishing her meal. 

She tried her best not to internalize any of it. She wasn’t the only student who received harsh punishments. She was just the one getting them so frequently. 

No one called home, not even when she asked. She always chalked it up to her dad being a ruler, but they wouldn’t even call her mother. She thought it was weird, but no one answered her questions. 

“CJ?” She focused her eyes and looked across the table. Violet had been trying to get her attention for a while. “Did you hear me?”

“What?” CJ finally grabbed her fork and started eating. Violet shook her head in annoyance. 

“How did you do on the test? I think Professor Cark threw in a few bogus questions to trip us up. Did you see anything on the test you didn’t recognize from our session?”

“I got an incomplete.” 

“Excuse me?” Alicia raised an eyebrow and put her fork down. “What happened?”

“I couldn’t finish my test.”

“Why not?” CJ’s silence left Alicia to fill in the blanks. The woman shook her head, all the conversations she had with her daughter about keeping focus, and she wasn’t listening. 

“Can I go to my room, please?” CJ asked, pushing the plate of food away. She watched as another hand tried to snake it, Lucifer shook his head and gently tapped the table so Beelzebub wouldn’t try to take it. 

“You’re not going to focus in class tomorrow if you don’t eat tonight.” The man moved the plate back towards the girl, and Alicia moved it away from her. 

“You’re not going to force her to eat. That’s how eating disorders start.” Alicia placed a hand on CJ’s back. “Go lay down, I’ll come check up on you later.” 

CJ thanked her quietly and went to take her phone. She found herself in a mild tug of war with her mom, the two stared at each other for a moment before Alicia let it go. 

“Goodnight everyone.” As CJ walked off, Alicia looked at the rest of the children at the table. 

“Okay, tell me what you know.”

Back in her room, CJ stared at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. She kept replaying the memories over and over again, her eye twitching as she tried not to cry. The voices got louder and louder, bringing a dull headache to mind until another familiar voice drowned them out. 

_ Please tell me you’re not about to cry. _

The reflection in the mirror changed, and the blue-ish green eyes that once stared at her were now red. A soft laugh filled the bathroom, and she found herself staring at a familiar redheaded woman. 

“What did I say about messing in my head? I have enough issues as it is.” CJ leaned on the sink edge and looked at the smiling woman. 

“I know, I’ve been feeling your inner turmoil for weeks.” War tilted her head and the smile fell. “I didn’t know I blessed a pussy.”

“I’m not a pussy.”

“You wouldn’t catch anyone, especially teachers, bullying me. Do you think they’d get away with bullying the royal brats?”

“Don’t call them brats.”

“I’m sorry...your....cousins?” CJ rolled her eyes and turned to walk out of the bathroom. The door slammed shut before she could and she growled. 

“Let me out of here.”

“Not until you stop being a little bitch.” 

“I’m not a bitch.” CJ grabbed the doorknob and took a deep breath. “Don’t make me-”

“What? Call out for you mommy?” The sound of the woman’s laughter twisted with the sound of the teachers’ laughter. Her classmate’s laughter. Her blue-green eyes flashed red, and the next thing she knew, the doorknob was smashed in the mirror. The laughter died down, and she hooked her finger in the new hole in the door.

“Mom’s gonna murder me.” She muttered, lazily dragging herself to her bed. She planted face first in the queen-sized mattress, reaching under her pillow for her scarf. She pulled out her D3 instead and briefly thought about what her aunt said. Reluctantly, she opened up FatesBook and went to her messages. 

**_HisIllness36:_ ** _ Beautiful! You decided to unmute us! _

**_RavenousFred295:_ ** _ I take it this means you aren’t mad at us anymore? _

**_BansheeQueen67:_ ** _ It was a prank after all. We didn’t mean to scare the girl.  _

CJ rolled her eyes and started typing. 

**_PhoenixPrincess666:_ ** _ You didn’t just scare her. You scared my uncle Asmo and almost sent my aunt Aimee into cardiac arrest.  _

**_HisIllness36:_ ** _ Look, she was at the wrong place at the wrong time. That prank was meant for Al.  _

**_BansheeQueen67:_ ** _ Besides, that must be water under the bridge since you’ve decided to unmute us. _

**_RavenousFred295:_ ** _ You must need something from us. You never want to acknowledge us.  _

**_PhoenixPrincess666:_ ** _ I’d rather talk about it during lunch tomorrow.  _

**_BansheeQueen67:_ ** _ That’s a good idea. Less of a paper trail. _

**_PhoenixPrincess666:_ ** _ Good. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.  _

**_HisIllness36:_ ** _ Do you want to keep talking to us?  _

**_*several people are typing*_ **

**_*PhoenixPrincess666 has muted the chat*_ **

**_RavenousFred295:_ ** _ Guess not.  _

The next day in class, CJ did her best to try and jot down her notes before the teacher changed slides. In one hand, she held her pen. In the other, she held the stress ball her uncle Satan got her. There were only a handful of classes she excelled at, Chemistry, PE, and Calculus. Something about numbers made her focus with extreme interest, and her mother’s love of science rubbed off on her.  That didn’t stop the professors from trying to trip their students up, and she was the main one caught tripping. Squeezing the stress ball as hard as she could, she whispered an incantation and the pen started writing on its own. She felt her phone vibrate, and she slowly switched her stress ball for it. She glanced down at the screen and sighed. 

**_Dante <3: _ ** _ Hey, are you okay?  _

**_Dante <3: _ ** _ Idk, you seemed off yesterday. Your mom got worried.  _

**_Dante <3: _ ** _ You wanna grab lunch and talk about what’s going on? _

She felt the corner of her mouth tug a bit, and she went to reply, only to have the phone snatched from her. 

“Pay attention, Ms. Mallory. All of this is going to be in the next exam.” He also confiscated her pen. CJ sulked in her seat and brought her index finger to her lips. She stabbed it with her fang and placed the blood tip on the paper. The words she heard the teacher emphasize slowly appeared on the page. It wasn’t her favorite method of learning, but she couldn’t bring home another bad test. 

  
  


Later at lunch, she sat at the back table with the other ponies. While she picked at her food with her left hand, her friend Dahlia was slowly wrapping a bandage around her right index finger.  “You need to stop stabbing to the bone. You’re supposed to prick your finger, not bite down hard. You’re going to end up killing a nerve.” 

“The irony of you helping me avoid that, huh?” CJ laughed a bit while the girl smirked. 

“Can’t have an apocalypse if you can’t hold your sword.”

“There’s not going to be an apocalypse. Diavolo said so.”

“That doesn’t mean the next king or queen won’t decide to get it started.” Freddy reached out to CJ’s tray since she didn’t look interested in eating, and she promptly stabbed him with her fork. 

“Don’t even think about it.”

“You didn’t look hungry.” 

“I’m going to eat, damn. Always in a rush to ruin something.” She pulled her fork out of his hand and put it to the side since she couldn’t use it. She took his clean fork and started eating. The smell of disease hit her nose, and she glanced over at the other boy staring at her. “Yes?”

“I’m just...really happy you’re sitting with us.” Hawkin held his gaze for a moment before covering his mouth with the bend of his arm to cough. “We’ve missed you.”

“He missed you,” Dahlia quickly corrected. “We all did, but he was very annoying about it.” 

“Shut up, I was not annoying.” 

“Oh, I wish CJ would answer our texts. Maybe I should call her. You think if I stop by her house, her mom might kill me?” Freddy said, mocking his friend’s voice. The boy pushed his lifeless hair out of his face and looked at the Avatar of War. “So, what happened this time?”

“There’s a couple of teachers that need to be reminded of who I am...but I’m not sure how to go about it.” 

“They’re picking on you too?” Hawkin sighed and put his head on the table. “The gym teacher made me do the obstacle course three times because I said I wasn’t feeling well. Then he had the nerve to get mad when I threw up. The futbol team threw me in the dumpster and hexed it so I couldn’t get out until the trash man came.”

Freddy nodded and shrugged. “Lunch monitor forced me to eat a couple of corpses that’d been sitting around for too long. I’m sure he got a laugh out of that.”

CJ looked at Dahlia, who raised an eyebrow and smiled softly. “No one messes with me, I’ve been playing therapist while you’ve been ignoring us. If you unmuted us sooner, you’d know you weren’t alone. How many teachers are a couple, CJ?” Dahlia pulled her hand away from her friend and raised an eyebrow. “Who are they?”

“It would...probably be easier to just list off the few who haven’t been picking on me.” 

“Then it sounds like the school needs to be purged.” Hawkin grinned and grabbed the neck of his uniform shirt. “That’ll be quicker than going after them individually.” 

“But a lot of people who didn’t do anything to me might get hurt.” CJ grabbed her bowl of hell hog entrails and dug in. 

“You of all people should know that every war has casualties.” Dahlia gently pushed her bang out of her face, exposing her empty eye socket. “Besides, the old man wants me to get some experience with mass level death intake.” 

“Aren’t you afraid of bugs crawling in your head, D?” CJ shuttered internally. These three were very liberal with their gifts, she didn’t have the same luxury. Her mother made her viewpoints on War clear as day, and the last thing she wanted to do was disappoint her. 

Still...Even she wouldn’t allow disrespect. 

The group continued to talk, only for the other three to stop speaking once footsteps were heard. CJ raised an eyebrow and turned around, finding herself faced with a pouting prince.

Dante looked at the next generation of Horsemen, his eyes settled on the one he was most familiar with. His pout lasted only for a second, at least she was eating. “You know, CJ. If you told me that you already had plans, I wouldn’t have been mad.”

“I didn’t mean to leave you on read. The teacher has my phone.” She looked around the table and saw an open seat next to Freddy. “Did you want to sit with us?”

“He can’t sit with us.” Hawkin snapped. The look of anger from CJ almost made him recoil, but he didn’t back down. 

“I’m inviting him to sit with us.”

“I’m sure the prince has something better to do than sitting with the likes of us.” Dahlia mused, slowly unwrapping a poison apple. “Unless he promises to bring on the apocalypse if he’s king. Then we’d have a lot to talk about. Lots of planning.” A smirk graced her face while Hawkin laughed. 

“He’d never do that. He’s too much of a good guy.” The Avatar of Pestilence pretended to cough, a cloud of green smog escaped his mouth. Dante jumped back while CJ blew it back in the boy’s face. 

“What the fuck Hawkin?” 

“It was an accident!” 

“Why don’t you just go away?” Freddy asked, looking at the prince with disinterest. “Don’t you have like....a ball or something to prepare for? A crown fitting? Literally anything other than standing here?” 

“You all act like being a prince is a 24-hour party.” Dante crossed his arms in annoyance. “I work hard.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Dahlia said, her eye roaming the tall monarch, taking in every detail of his fancy uniform. The red fabric, the gold cufflinks.  _ Silverspoon fed... _ “Mmm...But this isn’t a place for little boys and their toys. I’m sure your little lackey wouldn’t like you being over here with us.”

“I know you’re not talking about Alistair.” CJ felt her face warm up in frustration, but Dante simply placed his hand on her shoulder. 

“It’s fine, I’ll see you later.” As Dante walked off, CJ glared at the group of teenagers she was with. 

“This is why I hate being around you all. That was so unnecessary. You’re so pathetic.” She got up from the table and quickly walked after Dante. Hawkin blushed and Freddy shook his head. 

“You realize you disgust her, right?” He asked.

“I know...She’s perfect.” 

“You are pathetic.” Dahlia crossed her legs and bit into her apple. “She’ll be back.”

  
  
  


“Dante!” CJ finally managed to catch up with him in the stairway, after hopping over a banister or two. “Damn...You didn’t hear me calling you?” She reached out and caught his hand in hers. “Dante.”

“Sorry.” He took a few steps down the staircase so she would be at eye level with him. “I just figured you wanted to be with your friends.”

“They’re not my friends...They’re more like coworkers. Very annoying coworkers.” 

“You don’t run to your coworkers with your problems. You have me, your brother, my sisters?” Dante looked at her with confusion on his face. CJ looked away from him and fiddled with the hem of her jacket. 

“It’s nothing I want any of you to concern yourselves with.”

“Clarissa.” The girl took a deep breath and looked at Dante once more. The confusion long gone from his face, only annoyance and disappointment replaced it. How did he manage to look so much like his dad at this moment? It made her stomach knot up. 

“You know I’m not going to shy away from anything if it’s making you unhappy. But I can’t help you if you won’t tell me what’s going on.” 

“You wouldn’t help me anyway.”

“Wanna bet?” 

CJ felt her breath hitch in her throat. She gently pressed her nails against her leg. Normally, that would make her spill everything, but this was RAD she was talking about. His father’s legacy. She let go of his hand and started back up the stairs. 

Dante watched her walk away from him, he had half a mind to grab her wrist and make her stay...but that wouldn’t solve anything. Instead, he pulled out his D3 and made a call. 

“I’m coming over later, something’s wrong with CJ.”

  
  


“I don’t like this.” Alistair walked with Dante up the stairs to CJ’s room. “I don’t like her going through my things, and I’m not crazy about going through hers.”

“Something’s wrong and if she won’t tell me then it must be bad.” Dante leaned against the wall while Alistair picked the lock with his claw. The two stepped into the bedroom and Dante quickly went to the girl’s nightstand. 

“It should be in here.”

“What are you looking for?”

“Her diary.” 

“I don’t think she keeps one of those.” Alistair stepped around the room and looked in the bathroom. He saw the shattered bathroom mirror and bit his lip. “Okay, something might be wrong...”

“That’s what I’ve been saying.” Dante found a leather-bound book with gold spun rope keeping it closed. He turned it over in his hands. “I think I found it.” 

Alistair turned around in enough time to smack the book out of his hand with his tail. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed, shaking his head. “Don’t touch that. That’s not a diary.”

“It looks like a diary. What the Hell is it then?”

“That’s her book of shadows. Even more personal than a diary. Mom said to never let anyone read ours.” Alistair grabbed the book and put it back where Dante pointed. “I don’t think she has one. Let’s just get out of here.”

“You know she’s not one to bottle shit up, so if she’s not telling us, she’s writing it somewhere.” Dante looked around the room and pulled a small sketchbook off the shelf. He slipped through the pages quickly, growling in annoyance.

“What’s wrong?” Alistair looked down at the book and took it. “I didn’t know she drew.”

“I don’t know what these words mean.” 

“It’s Sanskrit.”

“She knows Sanskrit?”

“Not really. When she gets angry she just starts jotting things down in different languages depending on how angry she is. She usually writes in French.” 

“Can you read it?”

“Yeah, give it here.” While Alistair looked over the words of the page, Dante paid attention to the doodles she drew. He could barely make out the faces, she did a great job at scratching them out. Some of them were bleeding, some of them were missing limbs. 

“The teachers have been bullying her,” Alistair muttered. “Mom’s not going to like this.”

“Does it say what she’s going to do about it?”

“No, it’s just her venting her anger. Why? Did she say something today?”

“She said I couldn’t help her, and she’s hanging out with the other horsemen.” Dante put the book back on her shelf and walked out of the room with Alistair. “What should we do?”

“Tell our parents and let them deal with this.”

“She might get in more trouble.”

“Okay, but if she does something horrible, I’d rather her get in trouble with our mom than your dad.” Alistair quickly relocked the door with a flick of his wrist and pulled out a piece of glass cleaner to wipe off his fingerprints. “I’ll let my- Dante?”

By the time Alistair turned around, Dante had walked out the door. “And this is why I try not to involve myself.” He muttered. 

  
  
  
  


CJ wrapped up her fangol practice and took her time in the shower. All she wanted to do at that moment was break down and cry, not even body slamming the other players made her feel better. She grabbed her body wash and scrubbed up for the 6th time, doing her best to keep her head clear. 

_ They all think you’re a joke.  _

“They don’t.”

_ You’re bringing shame on your name.  _

CJ turned off the water and dried off. She couldn’t do this again. All she needed to do was get her phone, and go home. 

_ Running home to mommy and daddy instead of facing your problems head-on. Why do you let them tame you?  _

“I-”

_ The Avatar of War, you should be burning this place to the ground with your enemies in it.  _

“Enough.” She pulled back on her uniform and dusted off her pants. She grabbed her duffle bag and went back to the school’s entrance, only to be stopped by Hawkin. “What do you want?”

“You’re mad at me, and I get it. But you don’t have to be mad at me anymore.” He flashed her a bright smile, pulling her into his arms. She growled and drove her knee right in his stomach, shoving him to the ground and glared at him while he laughed. “You’re so hot when you’re angry.”

“You have bugs in your hair you disgusting-”

“No need to get hostile with him. We just needed you to stay in one place long enough for us to get here.” Dahlia said, walking up to the two with Freddy behind her. “We know you’re mad at us and we’re sorry.”

“We really shouldn’t be at odds with each other.” Freddy mused. “And Hawkin acknowledges his role in your anger, right?”

“Yeah yeah, I shouldn’t have tried to cough on the royal brat.” Hawkin scratched the top of his head, and more beetles came rushing out of the filthy blonde hair. “Sorry.”

“We wanted to make it up to you.” Dahlia smiled and took CJ’s hands. “So, we cleared out the school and put a seal on it so those teachers who were messing with you -and the others- can’t leave.”

“I don’t understand how the Avatar of War has a problem with casualties but I’m not complaining. I just really hope you get out of that.” Freddy ran his hand across his face. “Kinda hard to have a world-ending war without casualties.” 

“We’ll worry about that later.” Dahlia pulled CJ into the building and gestured to the classrooms on the lower floor. “They’ve all been kept here. Though...Would you mind if we played along too? There’s like...13 people here and it’s not fair that you get the fun all to yourself.” 

CJ looked at the other horsemen and shifted a bit in her place. 

_ Look at your friends. Looking out for your best interest. And what have you shown them in return? Your ass.  _

The voice in her head started to get louder as they all waited for approval. 

_ It’s time for you to remind people who you are.  _

_ The daughter of Greed.  _

_ A daughter of Mallory.  _

_ The Avatar of War.  _

Her eyes shifted colors, back to the red they were the night before and Dahlia squealed in delight. “There you are Clarissa, we’ve been waiting for you.” The group took their demon forms and went off to seek their intended targets. 

Freddy casually strolled into the lunchroom while the monitor was still cleaning up. He tossed his backpack down on the ground and smirked. “Damn, they still have you here cleaning up?”

“The fuck are you doing here freak? Don’t you have people to starve?” 

“Nah. The opposite actually. You should have a seat.” Freddy raised his hand and the demon was forced to his knees. Once he was sure the man was firm in place, he grabbed his backpack and walked over. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” 

“You were so generous last week, making sure I ate something. I just wanted to return the favor.” Freddy reached into his pockets and pulled out a pair of black rubber gloves. “My body was wrecked for days after that. If I wasn’t a horseman, I’m sure I would’ve died.”

“W..Wait.”

“So I did some research when I felt better. Did you know that celestial food goes bad? And it’s toxic to the demon form? I’m super grateful that my friend is so close to the angels. This was extremely easy to come by.” He pulled out a black patched grey apple. “This is an apple of Eden. It’s supposed to grant you great knowledge when eaten within an appropriate time. I may have accelerated its decay, but let’s put that theory about demons and Celestial food to the test.” 

Freddy walked up to the struggling demon, forced his mouth open with one hand, and shoved mushy apple down his throat with the other. The back splash singed the skin of his arm, but instead of recoiling, he just shoved it down harder. 

The man’s muffled screams were dulled by the sound of stomach acid boiling. Once Freddy stepped back, the man choked and gasped for air, drops of blood escaping the blockade in his mouth. The Avatar of Famine watched the demon double over in pain and saw the exposed flesh of his stomach start to rot. “Cool.”

Hawkin walked into the gym as the futbol team wrapped up practice. He didn’t even give anyone the chance to register his presence. He just started coughing, a giant cloud of smog and mosquitoes escaped his mouth. The harder he coughed, the thicker the cloud got. 

Was it overkill? Maybe. Did he enjoy watching the demons try to run for cover? Fuck yes. Those who inhaled his cloud quickly fell ill. Vomit covered every inch of the gym. Those stuck by the mosquitoes started clawing at their skin in a frenzy, ripping away at the flesh in a desperate attempt to put out the fire they would never be able to reach. 

He took a seat on the floor and watched with glee as the coach tried to attack him. Dahlia stepped out from the shadows and placed her hand on the demon’s collarbone. 

“Nobody touches the idiot but me.” She pushed her bang out of her face and grinned down at him, she watched the color drain from his face. She dropped the corpse at her feet and smiled at Hawkin, the dead man’s left eye now her own. “How do I look?”

“Creepy, I like you better without the eye.” 

Dahlia shrugged and plucked the eye out, popping it in her mouth. “C’mon. Let’s go see if Freddy needs our help. Then we’ll go check up on CJ.” She offered Hawkin her hand and the two went to collect Freddy. 

  
  
  


After searching the classrooms for her phone, CJ made her way to the history room. She saw Ms. Trundle grading papers, and the sound of her laughter filled her head once more. Without warning, she walked into the room and stared at the demoness. 

“I’m not offering after school tutoring. You’ll just have to fail on your own merit.” The woman refused to look at the girl. “I’ll see you in Summer school in a few weeks.”

“I’m not here for tutoring.” CJ looked around the classroom and found the yardstick the woman used to make students pay attention. She carefully wrapped her fingers around it and pulled it off the chalkboard. “My uncle says it’s rude to not pay attention to your conversation partner.”

“You’re not my conversation partner. You’re an entitled brat who thinks she’s going to say something that’ll fix her grade.” She looked up finally and smirked at the child. “There’s not enough money in the Devildom to change my mind.” Her eyes settled on the ruler and she got up. “Put that down.”

“Have a seat.” The woman was forced back in her chair. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t take her hand off of the arms of her chair. 

“I don’t know what I did to you. I don’t know what I did to any of you to make you hate me so much...I know you torture other students but...it seems like you really get off on making my life a living Hell.” CJ pulled the ruler back and felt the splinters pierce her skin. “But it’s okay. I think it’s in a demon’s nature to be evil. I’m still learning, but I’ll get there.”

The woman shifted to her demon form and the chair threatened to break under her strength. “You insolent brat...release me from this spell.” She pulled again and growled. “You think because your father is a ruler that you’ll get away with this?”

“No. I think because I’m the Avatar of War, I’ll get away with this.” A wicked smile graced CJ’s face and she broke the ruler in half. She walked up to the desk and put one half down. “You’re all so nasty to us. We’re here to train to bring you freedom in the new world, and you treat us like shit.” The half she held in her hand rolled between her fingers. 

“All of you are freaks. A weak plague, a selfish famine, a pathetic war, and a narcissistic death. They had no reason to sponsor you all besides a brief moment of weakness on Pestilence and War’s part. How they convinced Famine and Death to go along with it, I’ll never understand. All of you are abominations.” Ms. Trundle’s claws dug into the wood of her chair. Her tail pulled at the back of it, the sound of the wood cracking getting louder. 

“The sight of you all is an offense before the Demon King himself.” 

“So the sight of us makes you all want to attack us?”CJ smiled brightly, her fangs visible as her wings stretched out. “I think I heard my aunt say something about the sight of things causing others to behave badly.” She walked around the chair and forced the woman’s head back. 

“And if thy right eye offends thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee, something about profit...I really don’t pay attention in bible study.” Yanking the woman’s head back a little more, CJ drove the jagged edge in her eye. She relished in the screaming, and the blood that covered her face. 

The girl reached out for the other half of the ruler and she did the same with the left eye. She gently scooped the blood off of her face and placed it on her tongue. “Mmm...” The sound of the demoness’ screaming was distracting. She pulled out one of her switchblades and lightly pressed the tip against the woman’s throat. 

“So loud. You’ve always been so loud.” She slowly pulled the blade across the woman’s throat and sighed in content when the screaming died down to gurgling. Once all movement stopped, she went to tackle the other staff members.

After almost an hour, CJ sat on the field with a bottle of demonus. “That was amazing. I feel so alive!” She took a sip from the bottle and laid back on the grass. 

“The night isn’t over yet.” Dahlia mused, taking a small pull from her joint. “We need to get rid of the evidence.” 

“But there are bodies all over the school. If I knew we’d need a cleanup job, we could’ve had them all in the same room.” CJ looked at the others, who all exchanged glances at one another. “What?”

“We were thinking about burning down the school.” Hawkin pulled out a few water bottles with clear liquid in them. “I also have marshmallows.”

“I don’t want to eat anything that’s been in that bag.” CJ pointed out, catching the bottles that were thrown at her. 

Dahlia watched with glee and leaned forward on her knees. “Do we have accelerators?”

“Of course. I wasn't born yesterday.” Hawkin pulled out a few more bottles of accelerant and Freddy smiled. 

“I can’t wait until this shit hole goes up in flames. Hopefully, they won’t build it back up.”

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

“You don’t have to,” Dahlia said as she got up. “We’re going to lay the groundwork. You’re going to throw the match.”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, you’re the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Freddy lazily looked over at CJ. “It only makes sense that you’re the one to burn the place down.”

“Wait-”

“We’ll be right back.” The three of them got up and disappeared from sight, along with the bottles CJ was holding a second prior. She got up and looked around, clenching the hem of her blood-stained shirt.  _ Shit...shit...Too far. _

Dante and Alistair arrived at the school after waiting hours for CJ to come home. Alistair grabbed Dante’s wrist to keep him from running in the building the minute he smelled gasoline. 

“They’re going to burn it down.” Alistair shifted to his demon form and his eyes clouded. The boy could see the seal around the school and he shook his head. “If we step in we won’t be able to get out.”

“I’m fine with that, I just gotta keep them at bay until everyone else gets here.” He ignored any sounds of protest from Alistair and rushed into the building. He slipped on the lighter fluid and groaned in pain. 

The sound of the thud was enough to alert Freddy, who was a few classrooms down. He poked his head out of the door and glared at the fallen prince. Quietly closing the door, he pulled out his phone, opening up the group chat he had with Hawin and Dahlia.

**_RavenousFred295:_ ** _ The royal brat is in the building  _

**_BansheeQueen67:_ ** _ What?! _

**_HisIllness36:_ ** _ For fuck’s sake... _

**_HisIllness36:_ ** _ You know what? That’s on him. Wrong place, wrong time.  _

**_BansheeQueen67:_ ** _ This is supposed to be helping CJ. She’s not going to want to torch the place with him in it.  _

**_HisIllness36:_ ** _ Then don’t tell her. Freddy, keep him down so she doesn’t see him. _

**_RavenousFred295:_ ** _ Bruh, I’m not touching him.  _

**_HisIllness36:_ ** _ Pussy. Fine, I’ll take care of it.  _

Freddy stared at his phone and sighed, slipping it in his back pocket and climbed out of the window. He could faintly hear the sound of the prince getting back to his feet and running up the stairs.  _ Whatever you have planned, it better work, Hawk. _

Hawin quickly went down the emergency staircase and landed himself in the central cooling room. He looked around until he found an open-air vent. He yanked the cover off and took a deep breath, another swarm of mosquitoes flew out of his mouth. At least with them going every which way, eventually one of them would have to get to the brat. 

Dahlia climbed up to the roof of the school and looked over the field. She walked over to the edge of the building and carefully threw her legs over it. “He promised not to drown their world again, so the new world will be forged from fire. We’re not doing anything wrong. This is just a practice run.” She didn’t even pay any attention to her friend who was standing by the emergency exit. 

“We didn’t agree to burn the school down. We agreed to purge it, I thought that meant just taking out the staff.” CJ twisted a strand of hair on her finger. “I don’t think-”

“Purging can be done by a lot of means but fire is the most effective. He’ll just hire new staff with the same mindset. They may fear me, and that’s enough for me, but they don’t respect you. They don’t fear you, or Hawkin, or Freddy. You’re all under my leadership. If my crew isn’t feared or respected, then who am I to call myself the Avatar of Death?”

A soft black light glowed around her left hand and threw her hand out. She held her other hand out for CJ to come to her. CJ shifted out of her demon form and took Dahlia’s hand while she took a seat next to her. 

“I understand you have feelings for Dante, but you can’t act on them. If all goes according to plan, he’s supposed to be our boss. He’s supposed to find a suitable mate, and birth the new Messiah of our world. You wouldn’t be queen, you’d be a concubine, and honestly, you deserve more than that.” Dahlia closed her hand and life slowly started fading from the grass on the field. 

“We’ve been your designated friends since birth. You don’t like us, and I can understand that. Your mother raised you with her human morals, I won’t stop until I break that, but understand that everything we’re doing now and everything that we will do in the future is done with the best interest of you, and the group in mind. We have to keep our eyes on the prize...or in my case, eye.” 

Dahlia got up and pulled CJ up with her. “Come on, let’s torch this place. We can go to Hell’s Kitchen afterward. Their treat.” The two girls jumped off the edge of the building and walked to the edge of the field. Dahlia sent a text message to the others to get out of the building. 

Dante continued to run around the school looking for CJ. He checked the history room, where he found the body of their teacher. The gym where he found the coach and futbol team. The work was impressive, but he knew it wasn’t her own. “CJ!” 

He went from classroom to classroom, working his way up the building, swatting and smashing any bugs that flew in his face. He shifted into his demon form and took off for the roof when he didn’t find her anywhere. 

CJ and the others stood in the back of the field, each one with a book of matches in their hand. 

“Since CJ is the one with hesitation, she should be the one to light the first match.” Dahlia pointed out. “The dead grass will spread the fire to the school much quicker.”

“Come on babe, light it up!” Hawkin squeezed her shoulders and she pushed him away. She opened her book and broke off a match. For a second, she could feel the disappointed look she was going to get from Diavolo, but it was gone in a flash when someone’s body collided with hers. 

“Stop! Don’t!” Alistair pinned his sister down to the ground, only to be yanked off by Freddy and Hawkin. “CJ don’t throw that match. Dante’s in there!”

“What?” CJ looked up at the roof and saw a familiar pair of wings. The anger was enough to throw her back into her demon form, and the first thing she did was yank her brother away from the boys. “Did you all know?!”

“Not our fault he doesn’t know how to stay away!” CJ grabbed Hawkin in a fit of rage. She threw him into Dahlia, and did the same with Freddy. 

“Stay down, all of you!” Her eyes glowed and the order pinned the group to the ground. She took off for the roof and stopped when she saw a weakened Dante. “What are you doing here?” She landed next to him and dropped to her knees. 

“Trying to stop you...You were about to make a big mistake.”

“Mistakes are done by accident. This was completely intentional.” She pulled him close to her and saw where one of Hawkin’s mosquitoes bit him. She pressed her mouth against his arm and pulled the disease out of him, thankful to have been immune. “You could’ve gotten hurt you idiot!”

“And you’re going to get in trouble. You should’ve let me help you.” Dante gripped her leg as the pain slowly moved past him, she completely ignored the blood that flowed thanks to his claws. 

“You couldn’t have helped me. They planned this all on their own.”

“I would’ve ordered them to stand down.”

“But they don’t answer to you yet.”

“No, but they answer to me.” The familiar voice was enough to send chills down CJ’s spine. She glanced up and saw Diavolo in front of her, she held onto Dante a little tighter. 

“You have a lot of explaining to do, Clarissa.”

  
  
  


Back at the house, Clarissa could hear the grown-ups arguing downstairs about the best course of action for her punishment. She looked down at Dante while he slept on her bed. “You really are an idiot.”

He shifted in his sleep and pressed his cheek in her hand. “Not an idiot. Just concerned.”

“You’re awake.”

“Kinda hard to sleep when your mom is yelling at my dad.” Dante chuckled and opened his eyes, fixing them on hers. “I’ve never known someone brave enough to call him a hypocrite.”

“She’s probably called him worse.” She moved her hand down his face and placed it on his arm. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m probably better off since you pulled that shit from me.” He moved his arm slowly and grabbed her hand. “But I wish you would’ve come to me first. All of this could’ve been dealt with differently.”

“RAD doesn’t have an anti-bullying policy.”

“No but you have the favor of the king at your disposal and that’s just as good.” He squeezed her hand a bit and sighed. “I don’t like seeing you hurt. And knowing that you were being tortured and I couldn’t help.” 

“You didn’t know.” The two stared at each other for a moment, CJ leaned down and rested her head on top of his. “Thank you for saving me though.”

“I’d appreciate it if you don’t give me a reason to do it again.” Dante laughed quietly and CJ kissed his cheek. There was a knock on the door and the girl sat up quickly, pulling her hand away from him. 

Barbatos stepped into the room and looked at the two. “It’s been decided. You won’t be punished for the murder of the school faculty, but because you tried to destroy the school, you’re tasked with cleaning every inch of it for the next two months.”

“Isn’t that excessive?” CJ whined. 

“Well, it was either that or be locked in the dungeon with me for a week, and I don’t think either of us would enjoy that.” Barbatos turned his attention to the prince. “Come along, my young Lord. Your mother is here to take you home.”


End file.
